Cummins & Partners apologises to AFL for plagiarising Multicultural Round campaign
Cummins & Partners has apologised to the AFL after the sporting code had to concede that its new multicultural round campaign was too similar to the work of an Adelaide-based designer Tyson Beck.
Chris Jeffares, Cummins & Partners CEO, told Mumbrella the agency is “working very closely” with the AFL after the Herald Sun revealed the multicultural round campaign bore a striking similarity to a design of NBA star LeBron James created by Beck.
“As soon as we found out what happened we contacted the artist and apologised. He’s been very complimentary about the process and we’re compensating him,” Jeffares said.
“He’s also acknowledged that inspiration comes from multiple sources and indeed this particular print style montage occurs in many forms around the world and has done so for many years. However, in developing our mood bulletin reference we acknowledge this was way too close a representation.”
When pressed on how the mistake occurred, Jeffares would only say: “it was a process oversight which we are addressing immediately.”
Jeffares declined to comment further on how Beck is being compensated, if the agency has been reprimanded by the AFL, if any staff have been disciplined and how the agency is reviewing its processes to ensure the mistake is not repeated in the future.
Beck, the owner and founder of worldwide sports design collective Posterizes, counts amongst his clients the NRL, Major League Baseball and the NBA, of which the plagiarised work was created for.
The image created by Cummins & Partners, to promote the AFL multicultural round, has been used on the AFL’s Twitter and Facebook accounts and on the AFL website.
Beck told Mumbrella the AFL has handled the process “perfectly well” and he is on “good terms” with them.
“They were very upfront and honest about the whole situation and dove into how this occurred from start to finish. Both the AFL and Cummins & Partners who worked on the creative felt absolutely embarrassed and sincerely sorry,” Beck said.
“In short, the AFL and Cummins & Partners were both not surprised when I tweeted and emailed the AFL about their campaign artwork being plagiarised as throughout the creative process I was told there were meetings held about it within the AFL, where someone mentioned it looked like a rip off of my ‘Lebron James Artwork’.
“I spoke with the GM of Media at the AFL and from that stage he is unsure why the campaign creative went ahead as the AFL knew about the issue and the Agency created the whole campaign around my work, it was no form of inspiration and just a form of replication.
“I’m yet to hear from the brand manager of the AFL who is more than likely the person who approved this, but Peter Campbell (GM of Media) was very sympathetic and felt embarrassed that it got the green light.
“It’s disappointing to hear a creative agency completely plagiarising my work but at the same time it’s good to hear they owned up to their mistakes and didn’t try to pass it on as a coincidence or any form of inspiration.”
Beck said he has declined to name a figure in terms of compensation but rather has “left it to them to offer something for what has happened”.
While the Herald Sun has said Beck has claimed he was out of pocket $10k Beck told Mumbrella he had been asked how much an agency would potentially have charged for a creative campaign like the AFL Multicultural Round work.
“I simply stated that anywhere from $3,000 – $10,000 would be a ball park figure from my knowledge,” he said.
“It is disappointing that the agency will still profit from this though, the best resolution would be for the AFL to cancel payment for the campaign, they should not be charged by the agency.”
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane told the Herald Sun the AFL has apologised to Beck and said no in-house staff from its marketing department had been involved in the work.
“It was an outside agency who have apologised to the AFL and more importantly to the graphic artist,’’ he told the Herald Sun.
“It should not have occurred. The material produced for the AFL by the outside agency is too close to this person’s original work.”
The AFL has been approached for comment.
Miranda Ward
from this day forward they’ll be know as Cut & Paste not Cummins & Partners.
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I think LeBron James would be quite surprised that Mumbrella thinks he’s an NBL star as it’s a big step down from the NBA.
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Who cares. A montage of crappy shots is not an idea. It’s a contraption invented for indecisive clients and lazy agencies
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No self respecting agency or creative would recognize their work is a direct copy of someone else’s and then proceed with it… Terrible form.
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As a designer I find this disgusting that agencies like Cummins can take fees from clients and think they can get away with blatant plagiarism. Aren’t they meant to be a creative agency??
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“bore a striking similarity to a design of NBL star LeBron James created by Beck.”
should say ***NBA
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It’s odd that a graphic designer can claim copyright over copyrighted photographs? Just because they’ve been arranged into a montage does not mean IP no longer exists. Just sayin’…
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Hi Brett and Erica,
Whoops – mea culpa! That’s been fixed now.
Thanks for the comments,
Miranda – Mumbrella
Rip off of a rip off of a rip off….that’s advertising.
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I guess no1 has realized that he ripped off Blaine Fridrick
https://www.behance.net/gallery/8333449/Misc-Cavs-Creative-13-14
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Not by a long shot the first time this has happened in ad land. Im pretty sure the creative (team?) was shown the door, from those comments. Rightly so. Creatives are trusted. You can’t check everything or know every ‘style’ that’s in vogue. bad judgement, caught out.
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As a friend recently pointed out both parties might want to send a note of apology to Christiana Couceiro from Lisbon who created this Hitchcock piece over two years ago.
http://hueandsaturation.tumblr.....-genius-of
The telephone game of “inspiration”. It happens. Demonstrates to me why studios and agencies should invest in and retain strong account mgmt. Ones with opinions and empathy but have utmost respect for their creative teams. All it takes is one internal review to say “Hey friend, isn’t this a bit too close in concept and execution to that picture on your mood/territory board?”
In most cases the creatives shoot you a condescending glance, then get upset with your inability to “understand the process” then want to debate why their design is “nothing like this one” before dramatically walking away to hide in the corner behind their giant Mac screen and $400 headphones. But a new day comes, you all meet again and by almost magic the concept in question is gone and all the beautiful, original and strategic work they created (but were feeling too self-conscious to present for evaluation the day before) finally sees the light of day. And it’s amazing. You say, great job. They say thanks.
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I think you’re forgetting people the agency admitted to plagiarising the work by Tyson and the AFL said it was uncalled for as stated in other articles. So all parties agree the work was plagiarised, obviously in history of time people have created things similar but there’s a difference. The agency simply hoped that Tyson would not see it. Pretty stupid as he’s probably the most recognized sports in Australia.
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“Process oversight”? It was completely plagiarised. Zero ceativity, Tyson should be paid the agencies fees charged to the AFL. They really thought they’d get away with this.
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Whilst I don’t condone plagiarism, after seeing in this thread not ONE but TWO recent examples of almost identical work preceding Tyson Beck, I can’t help but feel he’s building the lily by crying foul.
My two cents is we’ll see more of this type of thing thanks to the productivity squeeze on agency staff and the ease with which the internet makes it possible to copy and paste.
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^ Huge difference between work of the same style and plagiarising work “samdaman” – obviously designers can use the face collage look but this is plagirised work, theyve taken Tyson’s work completely and offered no creative change or aspect to it that is different. Ridiculous to think otherwise
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^^ did you even click on the link to Blaine Fridricks work??… Tyson, apparently “Australia’s most respected sports designer” has exactly copied Fridricks face montage, even within the same sport, down to the same colour square over the eye! haha…what a fuss!
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The Agency and the AFL said the work was plagiarised and was unacceptable. Always got to have haters, people knocking Tyson, probably because of the work his done.
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